Breathing Oxygen In Pressure Unit Eases Migraines

October 22, 1989|By Ron Kotulak and Jon Van.

Breathing pure oxygen at a pressure equivalent to being under 20 feet of water appears to cure migraine headaches for most people, a Texas researcher has found. William Fife, a physiologist at Texas A&M University, reported that breathing oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber brought pain relief to all but one migraine sufferer in a study of 27 persons. The patients were treated in the chamber, which is often used to treat deep sea divers who suffer the

``bends,`` for periods of 12 minutes to an hour. In most cases, the migraine headaches were banished within half an hour of treatment, Fife reported in the current issue of the Journal of Hyperbaric Medicine. Scientists aren`t sure what causes migraine headaches or why the oxygen treatment in a hyperbaric chamber should help. Fife speculated that the headaches are caused by problems with the network of blood vessels that feed the brain and that breathing pure oxygen under pressure may somehow relieve those problems. This treatment doesn`t have any effect on the tension headaches that are much more common than migraines, Fife noted.

Stress of war

Living in a war zone is obviously a health hazard, what with bullets flying and bombs exploding, but even when a person survives the mayhem, it`s enough to trigger a heart attack. A group of researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, analyzed the cardiac health of 127 Lebanese who have lived under the stress of civil war for more than a decade. Reporting in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the scientists found that wartime stress is just as much a risk factor for heart disease as smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure. The researchers looked at ``war events,`` such as having a relative kidnaped or having one`s house destroyed, to see if they were associated with heart disease. They found that someone who experienced four or more war events was 11 times more likely to have severe coronary artery disease than was a person who experienced only one event.

Flu shot advisory

Although the influenza season won`t get underway for a few months, public health officials are already urging the elderly and people with respiratory ailments to get flu shots. This year`s vaccine contains protection against two type A strains named for the Asian cities of Shanghai and Singapore and one type B strain named for Yamagata, Japan. Dr. Robert Webster, an influenza researcher at the St. Jude Children`s Research Hospital in Memphis, said that in a typical year only about one-fourth of the population at risk of serious complications from the flu actually gets vaccinated.

Yogurt treatment

A cup of yogurt a day may offer some protection against vaginitis, Dr. Eileen Hilton of Long Island Jewish Medical Center has found. For years many women troubled with vaginitis have eaten yogurt as a home remedy form of protection, but Hilton`s study, which found women on the yogurt regimen had a three-fold reduction in the problem as compared to those who didn`t eat yogurt, may be the first solid evidence supporting this approach. The apparent success is probably linked to some unexplained action of the Lactobacillus acidophilus bacterial culture in yogurt, Hilton told Medical World News.